By Oghenekevwe Laba
LAGOS FEBRUAY 11TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Lagos State Police Command has arrested no fewer than 472 armed robbers, intercepted 390 arms and 16,034 ammunitions in 2013. In the same year, no fewer than 146 armed robbers were reported to have lost their lives during encounter with the police.
Disclosing the information while addressing a world press conference about the activities of Lagos State Police command in 2013 at the Lagos Police Command Headquarters Ikeja, Lagos on Tuesday, Lagos State Commissioner of Police Mr. Umar Manko explained that in that same year men of his command foiled 390 armed robbery incidents, while no fewer than 39 policemen were killed during encounter with armed robbers.
Manko traced the achievements of his command in tackling menace of criminals to high visibility of police officers on the road, intensive vehicular and border patrol, waterways and strategic deployment of gun boats and armoured personal carriers at all key locations.
He added that the use of helicopter aerial patrol and proper computerization of crimes in order to enhance a high level of report ability has also assisted in reducing the dark figure almost to zero in crime date compilation and analysis.
He, however, stated that the achievements recorded by his commands so far are not without challenges because society is dynamic just as crime is dynamic.
According to him, “Owing to the sophistication in the commission of crime and variation in the modus operandi often adopted by criminals in their dastardly acts, new methodologies, strategies and approaches have to be adopted by security agencies to stay ahead of criminals.”
Consequently, he advised that any futuristic internal security plan for Lagos and indeed Nigeria must involve a paradigm shift not only in terms of methodologies and strategies, but also the acquisition of modern day accoutrement and critical fighting tools to cope with the present sophistication in crimes.
“The population of Lagos is increasing daily. Policing is becoming more demanding. This will necessitate the building of more police posts, stations, steady supply of critical fighting tools and logistics for effective service delivery.
“Like what is obtained in other societies, there is urgent need for the establishment of biometric data bank of all Nigerians and other residents. This will provide the needed information and intelligence in aid of policing and will enable security agencies to have access to needed information at appropriate time,” he observed.